December 20, 2009

• Metalliwhat?

  I saw a Metallica cover band last night called Blackened. They sounded very good, although the lead singer probably could have been better. Than again, its not exactly easy to sound like Metallica lead singer James Hetfield. I know that most of the people who read my Xanga probably don't listen to Metallica, but I'm still going to post about the band anyway.

  I've always liked heavy metal, although not as much as my friends. I didn't hear my first Metallica song until the song "One" from the album "......And Justice For All" came out in 1988, so truth be told, I was late to the whole Metallica game. And a lot of long time Metallica fans feel that Justice was the last good Metallica album and that they have since sold out, however I disagree. I always loved their next album, which was self titled but is often referred to as The Black Album. My favorite Metallica song of all time, "Wherever I May Roam" is from that album, although it is my favorite due to my friends always listening to it on our road trips. We were trying to come up with Metallica's best song last night and we all agreed that it is "One" which not only is their best song, but might very well rank up there with Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" as the greatest metal song of all time.

  What I always find funny about music is the rivalry between fans. Of course it all goes back to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, probably the two best bands of all time, in that order. Many Beatles fans dislike the Stones, however most Stones fans do like the Beatles. I have a theory that its because the Beatles fans feel threatened that somebody might actually think the Stones are better. The same situation exists with fans of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And also with Metallica and Megadeth fans. Every genre of music has rivals and they don't seem to understand that both bands are great and it is indeed possible to be fans of both artists.

  Getting back to last night though. While standing in the middle of the crowd of mostly overly testosteroned men, I was reminded of the rage and anger that seems to be in nearly all of them. I also thought about how they would react if they found out that a gay man stood amongst them. Probably not well I would imagine. The ironic part though, is that I'm nearly positive that Metallica's amazing guitarist, Kirk Hammett is probably indeed gay, although not out for obvious reasons. I've seen enough of him in several interviews, however most notably in the Metallica documentary "Some Kind Of Monster" to know that he is gay, even though I'm notorious for having awful gaydar. I wonder how those enraged fans would react to his being gay. I suspect though that they would react the same way a racist reacts to a black athlete; it would be ok because he happens to be in their favorite band, however as soon as he is out of the band than they all of a sudden magically have a problem with him.

  • 8:46 pm
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